Birthday Wishes Do Come True (Ineke turns 10!)

Ineke, going in to her 10th year, has a deep and abiding love (infatuation?) with horses.  

And so naturally, horses had to be a part of her birthday.

Besides horse socks and a horse notebook and a little horse lantern, she got a beautiful horse card...

and on that card, she got a ticket.

And on that ticket, she got a birthday trip to ride a horse for the first time!

(I think, from those tears, that this was a very Special, Secret Wish that she had been holding close inside for a long time.)

Thank goodness for friendly, generous, homeschooled horse-people like Kate, who are willing to make birthday wishes come true.

This is Boon.  

I think both Boon and Ineke had some trepidations about trotting.  Poor Kate had to practically pull the horse to a trot...

But eventually trot he did. And Ineke was glad that she had done something that made her nervous.

What a brave, beautiful, boisterous girl you are, Ineke Beaneke. 

And we love you more than a barn FULL of horses.  ;-)

For her dessert, Ineke requested a fruit cheesecake.  Here is a fruity cheesecake at dusk.

 And here is her fruity cheesecake on fire.

And here is her attempting (and failing) to blow out the MANY candles upon her fruity cake:

One can only assume she had such a hard time because all her wishes had already come true.